Dr. Michael Kilgard

They like it to sound exciting.

It was targeted neuroplasticity training.

And so under some circumstances, you can improve learning.

But under the majority of conditions, you're already so smart.

The rats we studied are already so smart, they just didn't help, didn't help or hurt.

Didn't help focus more, didn't make it worse, didn't make it better.

Now, you can always wonder, maybe we didn't do the conditions right.

We did hundreds and hundreds of experiments.

So it's possible, though I don't know this for sure, it's possible this is one of the few technologies that helps those who are least capable among us and does not help those who are most capable.

And the idea is the way we're activating this is still pretty crude.

I'm blasting this whole thing.

This used to be called the reticular activating system, this arousal network that releases all these neurotransmitters.

It was viewed as one system back in the day.

We later found molecular biology and divided it into these different neurotransmitters.

But they all kind of get activated a lot.

They're highly covariant when they fire in relation to these arousing signals.

But the way we're doing it is still pretty crude, right?

I'm not activating individual fibers.

I'm activating the whole kit and kaboom.

Where does it get inserted?